It has become common practice in modern retail merchandising to provide a dispenser for both storing a quantity of like items of merchandise and dispensing the merchandise one at a time. In the dispenser, items of merchandise are aligned one behind the other and they are biased forward toward an opening which enables dispensing of the front item of merchandise. When the front item is removed, the remaining aligned items of merchandise automatically move forward such that the next item in line can be removed via the opening.
An example of a merchandise dispenser is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,131,563 issued to Yablans. The Yablans apparatus can be used to store and dispense merchandise such as lipstick.
A problem with known merchandise dispensers is that the quantity of merchandise contained within the dispenser is not easily determinable. The structure of the dispensers, and how the dispensers are installed, do not allow for ready visual observation of the stored merchandise.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,742,936 issued to Rein addresses the problem of indicating the quantity of merchandise remaining in the dispenser. The Rein dispenser utilizes a bias mechanism to bias the aligned quantity of merchandize forward. In one embodiment, the bias mechanism is a coiled spring, and in a second embodiment, the dispenser is mounted at an angle steep enough so that the force of gravity biases the merchandise forward. Separate and apart from the bias mechanism, the Rein dispenser utilizes a numerically embossed self coiling plastic sheet. The embossed numerals correspond to the quantity of merchandise remaining in the dispenser. The bias mechanism provides the driving force to move the articles to be dispensed.
Although the aforementioned merchandise dispensers function satisfactorily for their intended purposes, there is a need for an improved merchandise dispenser having a single means for not only biasing the merchandise forward but also for indicating the inventory contained in the dispenser. The biasing and inventory means should be capable of being produced inexpensively in commercial quantities to minimize the overall cost of manufacturing a commercially-desirable merchandise dispenser.